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September 1 – Choosing to Keep Growing · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:04
  Hey guys, it's September 1st. Well, I'm Corey, by the way, and I'm here with Pastor Mike.
• 0:12
  Hello, hello.
• 0:13
  And today is September first, choosing to keep growing.
• 0:17
  The stone, spiritual growth is not a destination I reach, but a daily choice I continue to make.
• 0:23
  Ripple one practical today.
• 0:25
  Today I'll remain teachable.
• 0:27
  Growth slows when I assume I have arrived.
• 0:29
  Every day brings another opportunity to learn, practice what is true and become a little more like the person God is shaping me to be.
• 0:37
  Ripple two spiritual.
• 0:40
  As I stay willing to keep growing, the Holy Spirit keeps awakening me to new areas of growth, and deeper trust.
• 0:47
  The father continues his work in me every day, and Jesus calls me to follow him with a growing and willing heart.
• 0:55
  Yeah, I was reading this and I, well, Spiritual growth is not a destination.
• 1:01
  You know, what's cool about the ride that we're on, Pastor Mike, is that's the 1st day of September.
• 1:08
  So that means we've been doing this for 6 months.
• 1:09
  Wow.
• 1:10
  Yeah that's a long time.
• 1:12
  That's a long time, dog.
• 1:13
  Yeah.
• 1:14
  And that's cool.
• 1:15
  Like, and, you know, I think, like, you know, and you probably, you know, you probably struggle with this sometimes, like, you know, being willing to do this sometimes and, you know, then, you know, we're here and we're doing it.
• 1:24
  It's fun again, you know what I mean?
• 1:26
  But like, it is, you know, because, I mean, we do.
• 1:29
  Well, you know, both of us are on different paths in our lives when we have this come up, this come up.
• 1:33
  No man, I'm worn out.
• 1:35
  Yeah. And, you know, but it says in the big book, it says never avoid these responsibilities, right?
• 1:40
  And so I think that's important to do. And, you know, to continue to do this.
• 1:45
  And uh, man, yeah, it's been a cool deal to do this so far.
• 1:49
  Yeah, yeah.
• 1:50
  I mean, it is hard to believe that it's been 6 months of this already.
• 1:54
  you know, and that that means that, you know, we've gone through, you know, half of, you know, a year's worth of daily devotionals, you know?
• 2:03
  And so, uh, but yeah, I mean, there are times when, uh, I don't want to, as the title of this is, when I don't want to choose to keep growing.
• 2:11
  You know, there are times when I just want to do a little bit of laurel resting.
• 2:16
  You know, there are times when I might want to do a little bit of those half measures, you know, things like that.
• 2:20
  But when I do, it's like, that's just a wasted day then. You know what I mean?
• 2:26
  Like, if I, if I'm, if I'm taking a shortcut, I don't get the reward or the fulfillment of basically living into my purpose that day, you know, uh, because my purpose is to, we talked about this a lot yesterday, is, is to, you know, helping serve other people, you know, helping, helping God's kids, as, as we say a lot in here.
• 2:46
  And, you know, so in those times when I get tired, or I want to kind of give up or I want to kind of hang back and let's some, let somebody else carry this, you know, this, this time kind of thing, I think about, you know, um, I think it was the Apostle Paul in the book of Philippians, you know, he, he, he used a lot of, you know, in his writings, uh, metaphors about kind of running a race, you know, and having endurance and things of that nature.
• 3:12
  And this is the new King James version, but it is in Philippians 3 and versus 12 through 14.
• 3:21
  You know, he wrote that not that I have already attained or am already perfected.
• 3:26
  So in other words, he's saying I have not arrived anywhere, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.
• 3:33
  Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, meaning I haven't achieved anything, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.
• 3:45
  I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
• 3:50
  So in other words, he's saying that he presses on.
• 3:54
  You know, he doesn't say that he, uh, you know, the the word press, you know, almost at times can encompass almost like that, you know, moving forward out of obligation, you know, a little bit, because there are days when definitely, Corey, I have to keep going just out of obligation.
• 4:10
  I have to keep doing something and the only thing that keeps me doing it is because I told somebody I would do it.
• 4:15
  You know, there are days when the commitments that I make to other people are the only reason why I even want to get out of bed in the morning, you know, because I know that there's certain things that I have to do that day.
• 4:25
  Now, if I can stop, if I can, um, you know, pray and mean it, you know, because there's, there's, there's praying out of duty also, and then there's prayer where you mean it, you know, as well. And I think we both know the difference in those two, you know, but, um, when I pray and I mean it and I allow myself to sit, you know, quietly and listen to what, you know, God may be speaking into me, it does change my attitude a little bit about things.
• 4:49
  I mean, I was having, um, this past, you know, Friday night, you know, I was having one of those days where, uh, I just, I'd had a a week last week of, you know, several days and just feeling just kind of down, you know, and it's to the point where, um, you know, my wife was asking me, when are you going to tell me what's wrong with you kind of thing, you know?
• 5:08
  And there wasn't anything specific.
• 5:11
  And, and, and I still would say there's nothing specific, but it was some of those times when I was, I was still going and I was still, you know, going to my meetings every day, still talking to other people, the program every day, still working on stuff, you know, for the church every day.
• 5:23
  You know, still had my, uh, one of the recurring right now.
• 5:26
  I'm actively working with the, you know, with the Sponsey on a weekly basis and still have that meeting with him, you know, this past week.
• 5:33
  But there wasn't a whole lot of joy in it.
• 5:35
  And I finally stepped back and realized, well, you know, there's been a couple of, you know, heavier kind of issues going on with, you know, one of the churches that I served. And then, um, I have one of my best friends in the world who for the past, you know, week plus has been in the hospital, you know, with some some issues.
• 5:51
  And so just the heaviness of life, you know, we're not going to escape that.
• 5:55
  And that's where I think I find encouragement from even, you know, the apostle Paul using the word press, because press doesn't mean, you know, that he's always running with joy.
• 6:03
  It means that he's still running.
• 6:05
  You know, he's still running the race.
• 6:06
  He's still pressing on, you know, with endurance, you might say, out of that Philippians passage.
• 6:11
  And so it's encouragement to me that, I'm still in the race, you know, I'm still running, and there are going to be times when I get kind of that 2nd wind, you know, that you hear runners talk about a lot.
• 6:22
  And now, to be fair, as we're talking about this, anybody listening, if you don't know us, neither Corey nor I have a runner's runner's body or build.
• 6:30
  One of us has a athletic build.
• 6:32
  The other one has just got to build.
• 6:34
  But anyway, if you don't know, y'all can figure out who is who.
• 6:38
  But, uh, but yeah, that's that's where it kind of kind of took me initially.
• 6:43
  I've done I've done the Corey thing now.
• 6:45
  I think I've been talking for almost 5 minutes.
• 6:46
  I think that's great, man.
• 6:49
  Oh, yeah.
• 6:49
  You know, but like, what if I want to, what happens when I do get to a destination, right?
• 6:54
  Yeah, then I have another destination to get to.
• 6:57
  I'm not ever happy.
• 6:59
  Like, you know, and, you know, Steffani was talking about it and, you know, she was talking about the new car thing.
• 7:04
  or she was on talking about something different, but you know, like when I do, when you do get a new car.
• 7:09
  How long is it a new car to you a week?
• 7:11
  Yeah.
• 7:12
  And like, you know, like, what is it you have?
• 7:14
  So, that's right.
• 7:15
  Because she was something last week about how you get that new car and then you see that same car everywhere.
• 7:19
  I remember that, yeah.
• 7:20
  And like, so like, but like, what's the, what's the hurry for going if I'm going to keep on going after I stop going?
• 7:28
  And it's gonna, you know, my significant other, you know, it's a very interesting thing for me to watch it.
• 7:33
  Watch this is.
• 7:36
  You know, we will have big things come up, exciting things, do those exciting things.
• 7:44
  And man, you know, I watch her kind of go on this downhill thing.
• 7:48
  afterwards.
• 7:49
  Because, you know, she went up, she went up real high.
• 7:53
  Yeah, now, yeah, now the come down come.
• 7:55
  That's right, because life doesn't stay at that.
• 7:56
  It doesn't stay at the mountain.
• 7:57
  It also goes through the valleys.
• 7:59
  Right.
• 7:59
  And so, you know, back to like, you know, what's the point of getting to the top of the mountain?
• 8:05
  You know, and I like to look at this is kind of like, you know, the same thing within the rooms of Alcohols Anonymous and different anonymouses and whatever you want to look at.
• 8:12
  And even, you know, in church.
• 8:14
  And I think, you know, this is kind of like, yeah, because we church people, we got a lot of problems too.
• 8:19
  Some of them have names and some of them don't.
• 8:21
  Right.
• 8:22
  Well, you know, like, you know, man, if God wants me to love everybody.
• 8:26
  and show everybody love.
• 8:28
  That doesn't just mean for everybody that agrees with me with what I view and what everybody believes, what I believe.
• 8:35
  Right.
• 8:36
  You know, and if I'm looking for, you know, within the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous, I'm looking for, you know, the goal is, which it says in the 12 step, you know, having a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, not a result, D result of these steps, if that's the result I'm looking for.
• 8:53
  For to conquer this alcohol thing, which it says that too.
• 8:57
  You know, and I am so worried on the way, so I say that spiritual awakenings on the top of the mountain.
• 9:04
  And on the way up the mountain, we were all on a donkey.
• 9:07
  And I got a red carpet donkey, so I got a carpet red anyways, and you got a blue, and this other dude's got a brown.
• 9:13
  Anyways, the whole way we're arguing about each other's donkey.
• 9:17
  And this whole lay up this big mountain that has rivers all around it.
• 9:21
  And by the time we get up to the top of the mountain.
• 9:25
  We've been, we look at the view.
• 9:27
  But what we could have been doing the whole way up the mountain is looking at the view, too, and looking at how wonderful this thing is, and how wonderful this life is, instead of worrying about this dump person's donkey, or this donkey doesn't smell right, or this one doesn't, you know what I mean?
• 9:43
  He sits out.
• 9:43
  I said, Tom, because that's all my pride.
• 9:45
  And when I lay aside that and just know that everyone, everybody that I encounter is God's kids too.
• 9:51
  Not just because they view the same way, not because this and that, none of that matters.
• 9:56
  Because, you know, if you think about the different views, it's not off by much, right?
• 10:01
  They're never, they're just off by a little hair if you look at the grand scheme of life.
• 10:06
  that I'll look at as this, you know, whoa.
• 10:10
  You do this.
• 10:11
  Well, that's how they grew up.
• 10:12
  And that's what they know.
• 10:14
  And I found out that they're just human.
• 10:15
  But anyways, you know, page 84, it says, you know, our next function is to grow an understanding and effectiveness, and this shall last a lifetime.
• 10:24
  And as I'm growing, I'm an understanding, I mean, becoming more effective, what I'm sitting down usually, talking to a newcomer, right?
• 10:32
  And we kind of like, well, you know, I think it's important.
• 10:35
  For what we're doing to, uh, cut.
• 10:39
  Well, I think that would be good for us to understand this too.
• 10:41
  Because, you know, our audience, you know, is kind of a variety of people.
• 10:45
  Right.
• 10:46
  But, you know, establishing common problem is the main thing in here, right?
• 10:50
  And the main thing in our literature.
• 10:52
  It says establish common problem.
• 10:53
  Because then after that we establish common solution, right?
• 10:57
  Now, I could think we could agree, you know, a common solution could be God.
• 11:00
  You know, but the thing is, is when I do that and I become more effective of how this literature works, I become a more the responsibility statement, right?
• 11:10
  If I know this stuff, why would I not be able to share, why would I not do this?
• 11:16
  Well, you know, he drives a Red Camaro?
• 11:18
  I'm not helping him.
• 11:20
  You know what I mean?
• 11:21
  He doesn't need help because he's already got life figured out.
• 11:24
  Meanwhile. Meanwhile, that red Camaro might be, you know, a week away from repossession because he hadn't paid for it in 3 months.
• 11:32
  I know, front of the wreck Camaro be stolen, Michael.
• 11:34
  Well, I'm just saying, you just never know.
• 11:36
  You never.
• 11:37
  Well, that's, you know, anyway, I was thinking about, I couldn't help it, man.
• 11:41
  You start talking about donkeys, right?
• 11:43
  And so, do you know about the famous passage in the Bible of the talking donkey?
• 11:47
  So this is in Numbers 22, way back in the, in the old, what, Old Testament? Numbers is the name of the book.
• 11:55
  Numbers.
• 11:56
  It's the book of numbers.
• 11:57
  And it's numbers, and it's chapter 22.
• 12:00
  And it starts in the 22nd verse and it's about Balaam, a donkey, and an angel.
• 12:06
  So Balaam's this guy, and he's traveling along, you know, kind of up the mountain, you might say, like your example, you is your donkey taking you up the mountain?
• 12:14
  So it's traveling, you know, with this donkey, and the donkey can see an angel of the Lord, who's come to basically stand against Balaam because Balaam's doing the wrong thing.
• 12:23
  And so the donkey takes him off the path, and Balaam doesn't know what's going on because he doesn't see the angel yet, so he kicks the donkey.
• 12:30
  And then the angel gets closer in front of him, and the donkey, you know, to avoid the angel, crushes Balaam's leg, against the side of the mountain or whatever, you know, so Balaam strikes him again.
• 12:42
  Well, finally, in verse 28, it says, the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, what have I done to you that you've struck me these 3 times?
• 12:50
  I just hope that I stay on the right path enough that I never have a donkey open his mouth to start talking to me.
• 12:55
  That's that's my takeaway from that.
• 12:59
  But the other thing that I thought about with the all the mountains and the valleys and, you know, everything that we were talking about earlier, and it's just kind of my final thought for the day, is just the 23rd psalm.
• 13:10
  And I know you're familiar with that one.
• 13:12
  The Lord is my shepherd.
• 13:14
  I shall not want.
• 13:15
  He makes me to lie down in green pastures.
• 13:17
  He leads me beside the still waters.
• 13:19
  He restores my soul.
• 13:21
  He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
• 13:24
  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.
• 13:29
  Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
• 13:31
  You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
• 13:35
  You anoint my head with oil.
• 13:36
  My cup runs over.
• 13:38
  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
• 13:46
  That dwelling in the house of the Lord, man.
• 13:49
  That's why I want to keep growing because I want to stay in that house.
• 13:53
  Right.
• 13:54
  Prayer.
• 13:56
  Father God, give me a willing heart and never stop growing.
• 13:59
  Through your holy spirit, continue work within me each day.
• 14:03
  Shape my life through the example of Jesus.
• 14:06
  Amen.